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THE BOARD "TRADE 
"THE CfTYcrCHSCAGQ 
IN THE CIVIL WAR 


CHICAGO 

HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY 



























Ck , ^33sO &rd., t f & i c . 



A collection of Addresses and Papers 
descnbing the Services rendered by the 
Board oflrade ofthe City of Chicago 
in the Civil ^ar. 


















1 

* 


The Board of Trade of the City of 
Chicago in the Civil War 

CHESTER ARTHUR LEGG 


r J^HIS is an institution dedicated to trade and com¬ 
merce. The occasions when we meet for other than 
business purposes are rare. In strict accordance with 
a policy which has been steadfastly maintained through 
all the years of its existence, the Board of Trade of the 
City of Chicago as an organization has studiously and 
successfully avoided all participation in political, 
religious or social movements. And yet, in times of 
national distress or need, no institution can point to 
a prouder record for patriotism, a deeper or more 
abiding faith in the integrity of American institutions, 
a more courageous insistence upon law and order. 
Just fifty years ago occurred one such crisis in the life 
of our country when the loyalty and patriotism of this 
Board of Trade were tried and not found wanting. 
Accordingly, in connection with the exercises com¬ 
memorating the fiftieth anniversary of the enlistment 
in the Civil War of the various Board of Trade troops, 
it may be well for us to remember and cause the world 
to remember the costly sacrifice of men and money 
which, during the crisis of ’61 to ’65, this institution 
placed upon the altar of freedom that “a government 
of the people, by the people and for the people should 
not perish from the face of the earth.” 

A full appreciation of the part played by the Board 
of Trade in that momentous struggle, can only be 
gained by casting our vision back a half a century and 
allowing it to cover in its sweep the various events 
3 


which were then transpiring. When this is done, all 
will agree that in comparison, even the present stren¬ 
uous period appears, if not almost static, at least one 
of blissful repose. Everywhere, except among the 
aggressive opponents of the government, were un¬ 
certainty and disorder. One by one, the great com¬ 
monwealths south of Mason and Dixon’s line had 
signified their withdrawal from the National govern¬ 
ment. The bonds of union conceived indissoluble 
for over half a century, when put to the strain, com¬ 
pletely parted, as many thought and some hoped, 
forever. 

In decided contrast to the Southern States, the 
great mass of the people of the North seemed a perfect 
example of indecision. The business interests of the 
country with natural conservatism, seeing clearly that 
war meant the disruption of business generally, and 
particularly the large and prosperous trade with the 
Southern States, were, until the last, endeavoring to 
arrive at an amicable adjustment of all difficulties by 
any compromise short of sacrificing the integrity of 
the Union. Moreover, the new government at Wash¬ 
ington, upon taking control, found itself completely 
unprepared to maintain its authority in the Southern 
States by force of arms, due to the vacillating if not 
disloyal policy of the preceding administration. 

The President of the United States at Washington 
alone seemed to realize the awful nature of the crisis 
then impending. He well knew that the issues drawn 
between the North and the South were not born of 
impulse, but rather of a fundamental difference in 
economic, social and political conditions which could 
only be finally and definitely settled by the stern 
arbitrament of arms. A successful outcome of the 
struggle soon to come he realized would depend upon 
two things, first, thorough preparation, and second, 


4 


an abiding faith of the people of the North in the 
sincerity and capacity of his administration. Ac¬ 
cordingly, with marvelous energy, he commenced the 
stupendous task of raising and equipping the northern 
armies for the field. While this was in progress, he 
waited with sublime patience and fortitude for that 
wave of popular enthusiasm and national patriotism 
to arise which would tell him that his policies and 
purposes had struck a deep and responsive chord in 
the hearts of all loyal people. 

The attack upon Fort Sumter and its abandon¬ 
ment to the Southern forces on April 14, 1861, was the 
spark needed to ignite everywhere the pent-up forces 
of patriotism and union fervor. Thenceforth, all talk 
of compromise was stilled, and all loyal citizens and 
organizations began to put forth their undivided 
efforts to sustain the government at Washington. 
From that hour, the Board of Trade of the City of 
Chicago began to throb with patriotic and national 
feeling, and through all the varying vicissitudes of that 
momentous struggle, no organization or body of men 
was a more unswerving or indefatigable champion of 
the union cause or contributed more generously and 
unselfishly both in men and money to the final triumph 
than this association. 

On April 15, 1861, the day following the fall of 
Fort Sumter, Governor Yates of Illinois issued a 
proclamation calling for volunteer troops to aid in 
sustaining the Union. The response throughout the 
State and particularly in Chicago was most enthu¬ 
siastic. On the evening of April 18th, a great mass 
meeting of the citizens of Chicago was held in Bryan 
and Metropolitan halls for the purpose of devising 
measures to arm and equip the volunteer troops from 
Chicago which had responded to the Governor’s call. 
All the business and professional organizations of the 


5 


city were represented at these meetings, the Board of 
Trade by a committee composed of one hundred of 
its most influential members. Within twenty-four 
hours, the sum of $36,000 had been raised to equip the 
Chicago volunteer troops. On the following day, April 
19th, Governor Yates was ordered by the Secretary of 
War to send immediately to Cairo a force to occupy 
and hold this strategic position. The city’s response 
to this call is indicated when we learn that within 
forty-eight hours thereafter, on Sunday, April 21, 
1861, General Swift left Chicago with two companies 
of Zouaves known as Companies “A” and “B,” several 
other companies of local infantry and Company “A,” 
Chicago Light Artillery, in all aggregating five hundred 
and ninety-five men and four six-pounder pieces of 
artillery. Subsequently, Company “B,” Chicago Light 
Artillery, organized in Chicago by Captain Ezra Taylor, 
and thereafter called “Taylor’s Battery,” was mustered 
into service on May 2, 1861, and left Chicago for 
Cairo on or about the first day of June following. 

In the various companies which left this city for 
the field at the very outset of the war were many of 
the younger members of the Board of Trade. If 
space permitted, it might be interesting to pick out 
from among these young and stalwart volunteers the 
names of those who were connected with this associa¬ 
tion. One such personal mention, however, can not 
be resisted. Among the members of Taylor’s Battery 
was one who honored us then as he honors us now 
—one who after four years of distinguished and 
meritorious service upon the field of battle has 
lived to crown it all by an untarnished record for 
sterling ability and uncompromising integrity in the 
affairs of this Board and in the business life of this city, 
a man whom we all love and whom the entire grain 
trade honors—Israel P. Rumsey. 


6 


Four days after the fall of Fort Sumter a most 
impressive and patriotic scene took place at the Board 
of Trade rooms, then located on South Water Street. 
At a general meeting, the following resolution was 
passed unanimously amid loud acclamation: 

“RESOLVED, That the board of directors be 
requested to purchase an American flag, and cause the 
same to be hung from the rooms of the Board of Trade, 
as an emblem of our devotion to the glorious stars and 
stripes.’* 

Captain Akhurst, of the firm of Akhurst and 
Douglas, thereupon presented to the Board a flag¬ 
staff from which the flag waved until the war was 
ended and for many years thereafter. 

During the remainder of the year 1861, the activi¬ 
ties of the Board of Trade were confined more largely 
to participation in general patriotic activities of the 
entire city than to any particular work as a distinct 
organization. Mass meetings of the citizens called to 
consider various measures for the public safety and 
prosperity were frequent during this period, and in¬ 
variably the delegation representing the Board of 
Trade took a large and prominent part in these pro¬ 
ceedings. At one such meeting held at Bryan Hall 
on Wednesday evening, April 17, 1861, there was 
formed a Union Defense Committee, composed of 
A. E. Kent, Gurdon S. Hubbard, C. G. Walker, 
J. L. Hancock and P. Conly, all members of 
the Board of Trade with the exception of Mr. 
Conly. Two days later, a subscription list was 
presented on “Change” and $5,000 was soon sub¬ 
scribed by members of the Board of Trade individually. 
A motion was then made that the Board subscribe 
$500 to be paid from the treasury. Some discussion 
arose as to the legality of this subscription under the 
7 


provisions of the charter. This discussion was brought 
to an abrupt close by Charles H. Walker, Jr., who 
moved that the motion be amended so as to increase 
the subscription to $5,000, which amendment was 
overwhelmingly carried amid the most uproarious 
applause. This contribution of $10,000 in the aggre¬ 
gate by an organization composed of six hundred and 
twenty-five members was the first among the many 
munificent donations which the Board made to the 
Union cause in the course of the war. 

Matters of war alone, however, did not receive the 
exclusive attention of our members during this period. 
During the first few months of the year 1861, the 
Board of Trade was engaged energetically in following 
various measures before Congress for the establish¬ 
ment of a stable and uniform currency, and the records 
show that at a meeting of the Board, held on Thursday, 
May the 17th, 1861, a resolution was offered by Mayor 
Rumsey and adopted to invite a conference with com¬ 
mittees representing the city banks, the country banks, 
the Merchants’ Association, the railroads, the lumber 
trade and the Board of Trade to consider the proper 
methods to restore and maintain the financial stability 
of the government. 

At the same time the Board took cognizance of the 
movement in Congress to repeal the reciprocity treaty 
between Canada and the United States, and presented 
a memorial to Congress remonstrating against such 
repeal. As a result of our action, this treaty was not 
abrogated for many years thereafter. Moreover, dur¬ 
ing this year, various petitions and memorials were 
sent to Congress praying for the enlargement of the 
Illinois and Michigan Canal and the construction of 
various railroads between Chicago and the Missouri 
River. When we consider that all of these public 
activities of the Board of Trade were carried on with 


8 


hardly the least interruption in the general business for 
which it was organized, we can realize how important 
an institution it had become in the life and affairs of 
this city. 

One or two incidents in the early part of the year 
1862 should be noted in passing. On February 17th, 
1862, news of the capture of Fort Donelson was an¬ 
nounced on ’Change when the Board opened at noon. 
No business except war business was attempted that 
day. Amid scenes of the greatest rejoicing, a public 
meeting was held in the Board rooms and resolutions 
were adopted commending the Union men and officers 
in the field and those of the Chicago regiments in par¬ 
ticular. Immediately following, a committee was 
appointed composed of N. K. Fairbank, A. E. Kent, 
N. D. Houghteling and Gurdon S. Hubbard, to act 
in concert with the people and the Sanitary Commission 
as a Belief Committee, and the sum of $675 was sub¬ 
scribed for that purpose. 

Another instance is indicative of the patriotic 
fervor which prevailed among our members. Many 
of the southern prisoners taken at Fort Donelson had 
been sent to Chicago to await exchange. Among 
them were a number from southern cities, who, prior 
to the war, had had social and business relations with 
many of our people. Soon after their arrival, these 
Confederate officers and men began to be received and 
hospitably entertained in the most select social circles 
of the city. This was particularly exasperating to 
many of our citizens who mourned the loss of their 
loved ones as the price of these hard fought victories. 
This indignation found expression in a set of resolutions 
which were presented to the Board of Trade by one 
of its leading members, Ira Y. Munn, condemning these 
indiscretions upon the part of our citizens and calling 
upon all to avoid a repetition thereof in the future. 

9 


The enthusiastic manner in which these resolutions 
were adopted showed conclusively that the stout¬ 
hearted merchants of Chicago were not only willing to 
contribute men and money to the Union cause, but as 
well to repress any manifestation of sympathy for the 
enemies of their country. 

On the following 6th and 7th of April occurred the 
battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing. When the 
news of this victory reached the city, no such public 
demonstration took place on the Board of Trade as 
that succeeding the capture of Fort Donelson. The 
Board, however, did give renewed evidence of its loyalty 
and fidelity to the Union cause. On the 10th of May a 
dispatch was read from General Strong, Commandant 
at Cairo, asking for surgeons, nurses and medical stores, 
to be sent immediately for the wounded soldiers in 
Tennessee. The members of the Board of Trade im¬ 
mediately raised by private subscription nearly $500 
and voted a donation of $2,000 from the treasury to 
be placed in the hands of the Sanitary Committee. 

On May 3rd occurred another instance which exem¬ 
plifies the rampant patriotism then prevailing among 
the members of the Board of Trade. On that date, a 
memorial was presented to the Board signed by 
seventy-one members calling for the adoption of a 
resolution requiring every member or applicant for 
membership to subscribe to the oath of allegiance to 
the United States before he should be considered 
eligible for membership or admission. A meeting was 
called on Friday evening, May 16th, to consider the 
petition and resolution. Upon the reading of the 
petition and resolution, a motion was made and 
seconded that the communication and resolution 
should be laid upon the table. Thereupon there ensued 
a most acrimonious debate, The only objection raised 
by the opponents of the resolution was that the Board, 


10 


having been organized for purely business purposes, 
it was neither wise nor desirable to bring politics or 
theology into its affairs. After prolonged discussion, a 
new series of resolutions was submitted to the meeting 
as a substitute for those originally offered, which, while 
voicing unqualified support of the Union cause, yet 
stated that the proposition to make such oath of 
allegiance an essential of membership or admission, 
was unwise and beyond the powers of the Exchange 
contained in the charter. The original resolutions 
were defeated, but the sentiment which inspired them 
and the great bulk of members supporting them con¬ 
stituted indisputable evidence of the patriotic feeling 
of our association. 

The real entrance of the Board of Trade into the 
war as an organization dates from a meeting held 
July 18 , 1862 . During the first year of the war, as we 
have seen, the patriotic activity of the Board had been 
exerted along the line of contributing funds for the 
equipment and maintenance of various Chicago regi¬ 
ments and in helping to arouse among the people of 
this city and the entire North a sentiment of loyalty 
and fidelity for the Federal government, As we have 
seen, however, the Board was represented by many of 
its younger members who enlisted at the very outset 
of the war. About this time, however, a sentiment 
was aroused among the members looking to the per¬ 
sonal representation of the Board of Trade in the 
Northern armies at the front. Accordingly, at the 
meeting of July 18 , 1862 , the following communication 
was read: 

C. T. Wheeler, President of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago: 

“We the undersigned members, request you to 
call, at an early day, a general meeting of the members 
of this Board, to pledge ourselves to use our influence 


11 


and money to recruit and support a battery, to be 
known as the Board of Trade Battery. 


C. H. Walker, Jr. William Sturges 
Flint & Thompson E. Aiken 
George Steel E. G. Wolcott 

T. J. Bronson 


M. C. Stearns 
I. Y. Munn 
G. L. Scott 


The meeting called for the following Monday to 
consider the communication was one of tremendous 
enthusiasm. Resolutions were passed pledging the 
Board immediately to recruit and tender to the govern¬ 
ment a company of mounted artillery, to be called the 
Board of Trade Battery, to serve three years unless 
sooner discharged, and $10,000 was appropriated for 
the raising, equipment and recruiting of the battery. 
This sum was to be raised so far as possible by voluntary 
subscriptions, but, it was resolved if any deficiency 
should exist at the end of one week, it was to be met by 
levying an assessment of $10 on each member who had 
not subscribed that amount or more. Moreover, the 
members pledged that should any of their employees 
join the battery, on their return they should be re¬ 
instated in the places they had left. It was further 
resolved that the names of all members refusing to pay 
the war tax of $10 should be posted in a conspicuous 
place during the continuance of the war, with a proviso 
that the directors be permitted to exempt from such 
posting the name of any member who should make 
it appear to the directors that he was absolutely unable 
to pay such a tax without injury to his family. 

Immediately upon passage of the resolutions the 
sum of $5,121 was subscribed, which, within forty- 
eight hours, was swelled to $15,210, and at that time, 
one hundred and six names had been added to the 
muster roll. On Wednesday evening following this 
meeting, the Board of Trade rooms were filled to over¬ 
flowing. The meeting was called to order by J. L. 


12 


Hancock, who announced that the Board of Trade 
Battery was full and then read a dispatch to President 
Lincoln formally tendering it to the government. 

When the applause which greeted the reading of 
this dispatch had subsided, Mr. E. H. Walker arose 
and offered a Resolution that the Board of Trade 
recruit and equip a Company of Infantry in addition 
to the Battery and tender the same to the government. 

This resolution was adopted unanimously, but 
upon hearing that the Board of Supervisors of the 
County had agreed to appropriate the sum of $200,000, 
the resolution was amended to read “Regiment” 
instead of “Company,” and Isaac Williams who 
announced that he had already raised forty men and 
would soon have his company full, tendered it as the 
first company of the regiment. His offer was unani¬ 
mously accepted. At this juncture, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association was invited to co-operate with 
the Board in raising the regiment, and the former 
organization, through a Committee consisting of J. C. 
Wright and J. V. Farwell, both members of the Board 
of Trade, in accepting the invitation, pledged itself to 
furnish five companies. A committee was then and 
there formed to solicit funds from individuals, and dur¬ 
ing the evening $2,000 were added, making a total 
amount of $17,090 raised in three days. 

It will not be necessary to describe in detail the 
daily meetings of the Board of Trade during this 
period when the regiments were being formed and the 
funds necessary to equip them collected. The Rooms 
of the Board soon took on more the appearance of a 
recruiting station than a grain Exchange. Each noon 
session resolved itself into a war meeting, and each 
evening saw the rooms lighted and open for the enroll¬ 
ment of soldiers, the dispatching of business pertain¬ 
ing to the work in hand, or for consultation with the 


13 


committees of the Merchants’ Association, the Young 
Men’s Christian Association, and other organizations 
which, inspired with a like zeal, were working with 
the Board for the same patriotic end. As an indica¬ 
tion of the energetic and patriotic fervor of these 
meetings, it is enough to state that before Friday, 
July 31st, the sum of $55,000 had been raised by the 
members of the Board of Trade acting in conjunction 
with the Merchants’ Association, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association and the Union Defense Commit¬ 
tee, and that in place of one regiment, three regiments 
were raised and placed in the field within seventy 
days from the beginning of the enlistment. These 
were mustered into the service as the seventy-second, 
eighty-eighth and one hundred and thirteenth Illinois 
Infantry Volunteers, but as the first, second and third 
Board of Trade Regiments, they were known both at 
home and in the field. 

The seventy-second was mustered into the service 
of the United States, August 23rd, just one month 
from the time recruiting began, leaving the same day 
for Cairo. Its strength was thirty-seven officers and 
nine hundred and thirty men. The eighty-eighth was 
mustered in on September 4th, and immediately dis¬ 
patched to Louisville, Kentucky. The one hundred 
and thirteenth was mustered in early in November and 
left for Memphis, Tennessee on the 6th of that month. 
In addition to these regiments, on August 1st the 
Board of Trade Battery was mustered into the service 
of the United States, after which it marched to the 
Board of Trade rooms, where the members were 
formally received and addressed by J. L. Hitchcock, 
J. C. Wright and others. The battery, numbering 
one hundred and fifty-six men, went into camp that 
afternoon, and their glorious war record was begun. 

During the subsequent years of the war, the Board 


14 


of Trade, as an organization, furnished no more regi¬ 
ments, but, it should not be concluded that its loyalty 
to the Union cause suffered any diminution, or that the 
aid it furnished was any less substantial. All in all, 
the Board of Trade during the war collected the munifi¬ 
cent sum of $220,000 and disbursed it in equipping 
and maintaining, not only its own regiments, but the 
various other Chicago troops as well. 

During the winter of 1863, the attention of the 
Board was called to the deplorable condition of our 
regiments in the field, and immediately a Board of 
Trade Relief Committee was organized with Murray 
Nelson as Chairman. The Committee immediately 
called for donations of fruit, vegetables and clothing 
as well as money. So spontaneous was the response 
that in one month after the organization of the Com¬ 
mittee over three thousand dollars had been sub¬ 
scribed, and in addition, as much more in value con¬ 
sisting of vegetables, clothing, and sanitary stores, 
all of which were immediately dispatched to the needy 
soldiers at the front. 

In the Autumn of 1864, President Lincoln issued 
another call for three hundred thousand men to be 
furnished by volunteers until January 5,1865, on which 
date drafting was to commence in all districts where 
the quota had not been filled. The quota of Chicago 
under this new call, was estimated at about three 
thousand men. The filling of this requisition was the 
most arduous task that the war had yet imposed upon 
our citizens. It was made exceedingly difficult be¬ 
cause at that particular time of the year, laborers were 
in great demand. After the call, Adjutant General 
Fuller visited Chicago and in an address at the Board 
of Trade rooms, urged the citizens to furnish the quota 
of Chicago without recourse to the draft. At his 
suggestion, a recruiting agency was established under 
15 


the supervision of the Board of Trade and the office 
was opened on November 19, 1864. In spite of the 
bounties offered by the government and the special 
inducements which the Board of Trade added to such 
as would enlist in the depleted Board of Trade organiza¬ 
tions then in the field, the enlistments were few and 
far between. As the time appointed for the draft 
approached, the anxiety became intense and all real¬ 
ized that vigorous methods would be necessary to 
secure the needed enlistments. Mass meetings were 
held during the month of December in Bryan Hall 
and in the Board of Trade rooms, and as a result of 
these meetings the draft was postponed until later in 
the following spring. By this time the quota of Chi¬ 
cago was finally secured. All, at the time, agreed 
that the success was attributable more to the efforts 
of the members of the Board of Trade than to any 
other single cause. 

A detailed description of the glorious part which 
the Board of Trade regiments and the Battery took in 
that terrible war must be passed over for lack of time 
and space. A list of the battles in which they were 
actively engaged would be but a roll call of the impor¬ 
tant and strenuous engagements of that momentous 
conflict. At Vicksburg, Murphreesboro, Franklin, Mis¬ 
sionary Ridge, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, 
Kenesaw, Nashville, the March to the Sea, and many 
others, these troops were invariably posted where the 
fighting was hottest and the danger greatest, and every¬ 
where their gallantry was conspicuous and their ser¬ 
vices meritorious. Time and again their work received 
the commendation and honorable mention of the 
Generals and Commanders of the various armies and 
brigades to which they were attached. Some concep¬ 
tion of the services they rendered and the sacrifice 
which they made can be gleaned when we find that of 


16 


the aggregate number of two thousand, eight hundred 
and sixty-three men who were mustered into these 
regiments and battery in 1862, only nine hundred and 
fourteen were mustered out in 1865, and that of the 
total number who marched out of this City with flying 
colors and brave hearts in 1862, approximately one 
thousand five hundred, or, about one out of every two 
who enlisted, were either killed in action or sub¬ 
sequently died of wounds or disease contracted in 
camp or battle. 

Anything but a bare mention of the gallant officers 
who commanded these regiments and battery in their 
various engagements is impossible at this time. The 
memory of their individual gallantry and deeds of 
daring should, however, be kept ever green in the 
minds and hearts of all members of this institution. 
There was Joseph C. Wright, Lieutenant Colonel of 
the Seventy-second or First Chicago Board of Trade 
regiment, who, at the time of enlistment was an 
active member of the Board. When the regiment was 
organized, he was forthwith offered the Colonelcy, 
but, with characteristic modesty, declined the honor 
and took instead the second place in command. On 
the twenty-second of May, 1863, within less than one 
year from the time he enlisted, Colonel Wright in 
leading his regiment in the famous charge on the rifle- 
pits at Vicksburg, fell mortally wounded and died in 
Chicago on July third, following. In the same regi¬ 
ment was Colonel Joseph Stockton, as brave an officer 
as ever led a regiment, a hero of many battles and 
later a distinguished and influential citizen of this 
City and State. In the Eighty-eighth Illinois or Sec¬ 
ond Board of Trade regiment, there was Francis T. 
Sherman, its first Colonel, the gallant Captain George 
W. Smith, who later became its Colonel, Alexander C. 
McClurg, a man successful in war and in business life 
17 


as well, and George W. Chandler, who died gloriously, 
as he himself wished, on the field of duty at the battle 
of Kenesaw Mountain. In the One Hundred and 
Thirteenth Illinois Infantry or Third Board of Trade 
regiment, among its many heroes was Colonel George 
R. Clark, who after a splendid career on the field of 
battle lived to make for himself an even greater record 
in the charitable and philanthropic work of this great 
City. We may let the records themselves w attest the 
services and bravery of Captain J. H. Stokes of the 
Battery. After the battle of Chickamauga, General 
Negley in command of the corps to which the Battery 
was attached made this report: 

“The promptness displayed by Captain Stokes 
in bringing his battery into action by my orders, and 
the efficient manner in which it was served, affords 
additional evidence of his marked ability and bravery as 
an officer and patriot.” 

The critical years of the Civil War have gone, and 
the splendid services of the Board of Trade in that 
crisis are now but a memory. The sacrifices which it 
then made and its record for patriotism and devotion 
to duty, however, remain a priceless heritage to this 
and all succeeding generations of its members. Its 
past at least is written bright upon the pages of the 
nation’s history. The present, however, has its prob¬ 
lems as well as the past. The country’s call for strong 
men, for loyal and patriotic men, is no less insistent 
now than then. And whenever in the future, the 
nation shall call again upon its loyal citizens to protect 
its flag, defend its integrity, or maintain the supremacy 
of law and order, no institution or no body of men any¬ 
where will more willingly or enthusiastically respond 
than those who have the honor to be members of the 
Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. 


ADDRESSES 


Delivered during the Exercises held at the 

Board of Trade of the City of Chicago 

August 22, 1912 


Commemorating the Enlistment in the 
Civil War of the 

First Board of Trade Regiment (72d Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry), Second Board of Trade Regiment 
(88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry), Third 
Board of Trade Regiment (113th 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry) 
and the Board of 
Trade Battery. 


Address of Welcome 


FRANK M. BUNCH, President 

Members of the Board of Trade Regiments and Battery , 
Union Veterans of the Civil War and Fellow-mem¬ 
bers of the Board of Trade: 

This is indeed a proud occasion in the life of this 
association. No man can stand here facing this audi¬ 
ence without imbibing the spirit of this meeting and 
without feeling in a greater degree than he has ever 
yet realized the honor which is attached to membership 
in this institution. In the lapse of time, the impulses 
of the Board have become intensely commercial. For 
this reason, if none other, it is good to stop for a little 
while the wheels of business, to repress the activities 
of trade and in obedience to a natural and spontaneous 
sentiment of self-congratulation to commemorate the 
glorious services of those who in the full blush of young 
manhood went out from our midst just fifty years ago 
to represent this institution upon the field of battle 
and to die, if need be, in defense of the laws and in¬ 
tegrity of our government. 

Surviving Members of the Board of Trade Regiments and 
Battery: 

I voice a universal sentiment of regret that your 
roll-call today must record as “absent” so many of 
your loyal brothers who answered so lustily to the call 
of their names around the camp fires just fifty years 
ago. You left us with a force of nearly three thousand 
men and returned after four years of strife with but 
a thousand, leaving behind upon battlefields far to the 


20 


south nearly fifteen hundred of your number who 
offered up their lives as a glorious sacrifice to their 
country. 

The ravages of time in addition to the havoc of 
war have further thinned your ranks until today you 
return to us but a handful. But to all of you who 
have been spared this day and remembering in our 
minds and hearts all those who have done their duty 
and passed to their reward, the Board of Trade again 
desires to attest its appreciation of your glorious 
services and through you as living examples to re¬ 
affirm its devotion to the laws of our common country 
and our abiding faith in the permanency of American 
institutions. Therefore, expressing at the same time 
my own personal feelings and that of the entire in¬ 
stitution of which I have the honor to be the President, 
I bid you hearty welcome again to these halls and wish 
you continued careers of health and usefulness. 


21 


ADDRESS 


OF 

CHARLES H. TAYLOR 


Mr. President , Members of the Board of Trade , Sur¬ 
vivors of the Board of Trade Battery, and the Three 
Board of Trade Regiments: 

The good things of life, its necessaries, its comforts, 
even its luxuries, have been so bountifully showered 
upon this Nation, and existence has been so much 
easier in this favored land during recent years, than it 
ever was in any other country under the sun, at any 
time in the history of mankind, that our people, native- 
born and alien alike, who sometimes forget these 
things, need to be reminded, now and then, that every¬ 
thing we have of liberty, of material prosperity, of 
real progress, has been bought by the blood of heroic 
men, and the anguish and tears of sorrowing women. 
Every step in our advance from the shores of New 
England and Virginia to the crest of the Sierras has 
been gained at the cost of infinite toil, and by the 
unstinted sacrifices of patriotic men. And the price¬ 
less heritage to which the present generation of Amer¬ 
icans has fallen heir can be transmitted, unimpaired, 
to those who shall come after us, only upon condition 
that the men of today, appreciating this rich legacy 
which is theirs, and honoring those who made, and 
those who have preserved us a Nation, shall, if need 


22 



be, prove themselves capable of equal self-consecra¬ 
tion, and devotion to duty and to Fatherland. 

Nothing is further from the thought of those who 
live in this prosaic, modern city, than the idea that 
there could have been, in its early days, any element 
of poetry or romance, such as we associate with the 
dim past of Rome and Athens and Troy. And yet, 
like many another temporary halting place of our 
far-flung frontier line, Chicago has had its tragedies, 
which the poetic genius of a future Homer or Virgil 
will, some day, weave into an epic that will rival the 
Iliad, or the story of iEneas. 

It is well-nigh impossible for any of us to realize 
that barely one hundred years separate this teeming 
metropolis from the wilderness of marsh, and swamp, 
and prairie, and sand-dune, which in 1812 covered 
the site of our beloved city; nor can any one of us 
conceive the horror of the days and nights which 
followed the Chicago massacre, whose Centennial 
was fitly commemorated in this City last week. 

One hundred years ago this night, the little wooden 
stockade and blockhouses which had been dignified 
by the name of Fort Dearborn, were a mass of smolder¬ 
ing ruins. The garrison of fifty-four American soldiers 
who had abandoned its shelter on that fatal 15th day of 
August, 1812, under the orders of a brave, but unfor¬ 
tunate, if not incompetent commander, were dead, 
or prisoners in the hands of the barbarous allies of a 
civilized nation with which we were at war. No pale¬ 
face not allied to the British and Indians dared ven¬ 
ture within a hundred miles of this farthest outpost 
of civilization, over which for nine years the American 
flag had floated as the emblem of the power and 
sovereignty of the United States; and from Take 
Michigan, west and northwest to the Pacific Ocean, 
the red devils were supreme. 

23 


One hundred years ago tonight the placid Lake 
and the sluggish Che-ca-gou river bore on their 
bosom only the canoe of the Indian savage; the 
sandy beach, and the drifting hillocks between 16th 
and 20th streets had drunk the blood of our soldiers— 
who died as American soldiers are wont to die on the 
field of battle—and for a week, wolves and eagles had 
feasted upon the mutilated and festering corpses of 
the women and children, murdered by those blood¬ 
thirsty savages, to whose fiendish ears no earthly 
music was so sweet as the agonizing shrieks of their 
tortured and helpless victims. It was the first great 
tragedy of Chicago. 

And as all of us fail to comprehend the horror of 
that awful catastrophe, so I doubt not the younger 
members of this community are unable to appreciate 
the magnitude of another and greater calamity which 
befell this city and the whole country, half a century 
later, just midway between the shame and the gloom 
of Chicago’s dawn and the pride and glory of her mid¬ 
day splendor; a calamity where the dead outnumbered, 
ten thousand times, the fifty or sixty who fell on the 
shifting sands of Chicago, on that sad August day in 
1812; a calamity whose trail of woe reached every fire¬ 
side in the land, and made the Nation mourn for years. 

A portion of our fellow countrymen, dissatisfied 
with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presi¬ 
dency, deluded by the sophistries of disappointed, but 
ambitious politicians, and inflamed by the falsehoods 
of unscrupulous newspapers, declared that they would 
no longer live under the same government with us, 
and organized great armies to overthrow the National 
authority. If there was at any time a possibility of 
peace by compromise of any sort, it vanished with the 
smoke of the first gun fired at Fort Sumter and the 
Stars and Stripes which floated above its walls. From 


24 


that moment, the one issue before the American people 
was the preservation of the Union in its integrity; 
and by common consent, as well as by force of cir¬ 
cumstances, this question was appealed to the God of 
Battles. 

During the four years of that terrific struggle 
which followed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, 
there was, perhaps, no darker period than the summer 
of 1862. The war had been in progress more than a 
year. Our army had driven the Confederates out of 
West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, 
had captured New Orleans, and occupied portions of 
Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, and 
our navy had opened the Mississippi River both 
above and below Vicksburg. But these and other 
successes were more than counterbalanced by the ill- 
fortune which had attended the Army of the Potomac 
in the east. McClellan’s campaign against Richmond, 
by way of the Peninsula, had failed, leaving the road 
open for Lee and Stonewall Jackson to overwhelm the 
unfortunate General Pope on the ill-fated plains of 
Manassas; Maryland and Pennsylvania were threat¬ 
ened with invasion, and the safety of Washington 
itself was imperiled. 

This was the critical situation when, on the 6th 
of July, 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for three- 
hundred thousand more volunteers. There was a strong 
disloyal element even in Chicago, then a city of one- 
hundred and thirty thousand or one-hundred and forty 
thousand people, not quite as large as Syracuse is now, 
and not very much larger than Grand Rapids, Mich., 
but the Board of Trade, under the leadership of John L. 
Hancock, Julian S. Rumsey, Ira Y. Munn, Gurdon S. 
Hubbard and others, voted, July 21st, to raise and 
equip a battery of artillery and a company of infantry. 

Don’t imagine for a minute that the six or seven 
25 


hundred loyal men who then composed the Board 
of Trade had been asleep, or idle, during the stirring 
days of ’61. The first detachment of Chicago troops 
started for Cairo on the 21st of April, 1861, only seven 
days after the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and with 
them was Battery A, 1st Illinois Light Artillery. 
Several members of this Board enlisted in that Bat¬ 
tery, among whom was Sergeant John W. Rumsey 
who rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant, and was in 
command of the Battery at the battle of Resaca, where 
he was dangerously wounded. 

A few weeks later, on the first of June, 1861, Bat¬ 
tery B, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, left for the seat of 
war, under command of Captain Ezra Taylor, who 
served as Provision Inspector of this Board for so many 
years, and by whose name the Battery was and is 
well known. Another of its officers was Lieutenant 
I. P. Rumsey, then, as now, an honored member of 
this Board. Captain Taylor rose to the rank of Colonel, 
and was selected by General Sherman as Chief of 
Artillery in the Army of the Tennessee. Lieutenant 
Rumsey was promoted Captain and commanded this 
famous Battery from the siege of Vicksburg until the 
expiration of its term of enlistment. 

The Board had done its full share in co-operation 
with other patriotic bodies during the early part of 
the war, but on this 21st of July, 1862, it determined 
to see what it could do alone, and Sylvanus H. Stevens 
of this Board, who was for many years our efficient 
Flax-seed Inspector, was the first man to sign the 
Enlistment Roll of the Board of Trade Battery. Two 
days later, on the 23rd, Mr. Hancock announced that 
the Battery was full, and President Lincoln was notified 
that a battery of artillery had been raised and was 
awaiting orders; and at a meeting held that day (23rd), 
it was resolved to raise a full regiment of infantry 


26 


instead of one company, as at first proposed. And 
on the 29th it was decided to raise three regiments of 
infantry in all, or, as the resolution expressed it, a 
brigade. 

The ranks were quickly filled, and on the 23rd of 
August the 72nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the first 
Board of Trade Regiment, was mustered into the ser¬ 
vice of the United States, and left Chicago for the 
front. The Board of Trade Battery was mustered in 
August 1st, but owing to a delay in its equipment it 
did not leave for the scene of hostilities until the 9th 
of September. The 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 
the second Board of Trade Regiment, left Chicago for 
the front September 4th, and the 113th Illinois, the 
third Board of Trade Regiment, on the 6th of No¬ 
vember. But the Board of Trade did more than equip 
these troops. A number of its members went with 
them, among whom were Joseph C. Wright, who was 
chosen Lieutenant-Colonel of the 72nd, and who was 
killed in the assault upon the enemy’s works at Vicks¬ 
burg on the 22d of May in the following year; Joseph 
Stockton, Captain of Company A in the same regiment, 
and afterwards its Lieutenant-Colonel, whom so many 
of us remember with affection as General Joseph Stock- 
ton; and Lieutenant Benjamin W. Underwood, who 
became Adjutant of the 72nd, later. 

Every one of these organizations served with credit 
to itself, and with honor to the Board of Trade. 
Indeed, Mr. President, it would not be difficult to 
prove that the Chicago Board of Trade really put 
down the Great Rebellion. Only the innate modesty, 
the extreme and uncontrollable modesty of the mem¬ 
bers of this Board has concealed this fact so long. I 
would not detract one iota from the honor due our 
great leaders, Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, 
Meade; I would not for a moment disparage the ines- 


27 


timable services rendered by a host of my brave com¬ 
rades from other States, and from this State; nor do 
I pretend to say whether or not the terror inspired 
in the enemy’s ranks by the name and reputation of 
the “scalpers” of the Board of Trade had anything 
to do with the final result. But certain it is, that from 
the day the first regiment of our boys started for the 
front, until the close of the War, there was no great 
battle in the West in which at least one of these famous 
organizations did not participate; and, furthermore, 
except for the temporary check upon the bloody field 
of Chickamauga, every great battle in which either of 
the Board of Trade regiments or the Board of Trade 
Battery was engaged resulted in a victory for the 
army of which such regiment or battery was a part. 

It has often happened on a hard-fought field, where 
the contending forces were evenly matched, and 
where the men on both sides have withstood the hail 
of lead and the storm of shell almost to the limit of 
human endurance, that a brigade, or even one regiment 
of infantry, or a single battery of artillery, has caused 
the scales of victory to incline to one side or the other. 

Stone River, Chickamauga, Franklin, were such 
battles, and in each of them the Chicago Board of 
Trade participated, and bore an honorable, and some¬ 
times a conspicuous part. Not that every member 
of this Board was present in person, but that this 
great institution was represented on every one of these 
fields of death by as knightly a body of men as ever 
set lance in rest in the days of ancient chivalry, or 
courted immortality on the gory plains where human 
liberty was won. 

Yes, these boys of ours were |there; and who 
knows but their courage and tenacity gave Rose- 
crans the victory at Stone River; enabled that im¬ 
mortal Virginian, George H. Thomas, to stem the tide 


of defeat and save our army from destruction at 
Chickamauga, or helped Schofield’s thin line of blue 
at Franklin defy the utmost valor of Hood’s brave 
veteran soldiers? 

And who can say with certainty, in view of all the 
facts, that a serious disaster to our arms on any one 
of these historic fields would not have prolonged the 
great contest, and so encouraged the enemies of the 
Government, North, as well as South (and there were 
many of them right here in Chicago), as to make a 
vigorous prosecution of the War impossible? 

Who can deny the reasonable probability that a 
complete Confederate success at Chickamauga, on 
the 19th and 20th of September, 1863, or in front of 
Nashville, a little more than a year later, involving 
the loss of nearly all we had gained south of the Ohio 
River, and forcing upon us untold perplexities, military 
and political, would have brought near to realization 
that iridescent dream of a great Slave Empire encircling 
the Gulf of Mexico, stretching from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, and from Mason and Dixon’s line and the 
Ohio River to the Isthmus of Panama, whose dazzling 
possibilities of wealth and political power had capti¬ 
vated the imagination and enthralled the better judg¬ 
ment of the very able men who planned and led the 
Great Revolt of 1861? 

Fellow-members of the Board of Trade, those 
boys who carried the name of this Board so nobly 
went forth to battle, 50 years ago, in the pride of 
youth and health, three thousand strong. 

Many of them sleep beneath the cypress and the 
pine, on the hillsides and in the valleys of the South¬ 
land, and beside the margin of the Great River. Be¬ 
cause they, and others like them, died in defense of 
the flag you entrusted to their care and protection, 
29 


this is one great, united and peaceful Nation today, 
instead of half-a-dozen weak and warring nations. 

The things they did during their three years of 
service will make the name of this Board of Trade 
illustrious when everything we have done here in 
the last half century shall have been forgotten. 

At the close of that greatest of all the wars in 
history, those who had escaped the perils of battle, 
and the still greater peril of disease, came home, 
covered with wounds and with honor, wearing the 
laurel of victory, and bearing proudly upon their 
battle flags, the names of Perryville, Stone River, 
Arkansas Post, Champion’s Hill, Vicksburg, Chicka- 
maugua, Mission Ridge, The Atlanta Campaign, 
Franklin, Nashville. 

Forty-seven peaceful and memorable years have 
passed since those sacred flags, bullet-torn and blood¬ 
stained, were furled in triumph, and the great cause 
for which these men fought was won; that stupendous 
task, which the military critics of the world, with one 
voice, had pronounced impossible, successfully, com¬ 
pletely, and gloriously accomplished. Of the gallant 
band that answered to their names at the last roll-call 
of the Board of Trade Battery, and the Board of Trade 
Regiments, but few remain. Lame and halt and 
weary; feeble of body, but with the same unconquer¬ 
able souls which nerved their youthful arms to battle 
so valiantly for their country—for your country, and 
my country—these few surviving “boys” of ours have 
honored us again, and it may be for the last time, by 
their presence here, tonight. 

And now, fellow-soldiers of the Republic, Vet¬ 
erans of the 72d, the 88th and 113th Illinois Infantry, 
the three Board of Trade Regiments, and the Board 
of Trade Battery, upon this 50th anniversary of the 
beginning of your distinguished service, it is our 


30 


great pleasure, and our high privilege as members 
of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, once 
more to welcome you to this city, and to this home of 
ours; to acknowledge ^ur indebtedness to the living 
and the dead of these splendid organizations; to 
thank God that our country, in the hour of its need, 
found such defenders; to thank Him, and congratu¬ 
late you, that your lives have been spared until this 
hour; and reverently to pray, that as the shadows 
lengthen, and, one by one, you draw nearer and 
nearer to the sunset, the road may be smooth where 
your feeble and weary feet must pass, the air filled 
with the fragrance of flowers, and vibrant with heavenly 
music; and that at last, as the day is ending, and the 
sun goes down, and the twilight deepens, there may 
come to each one of you, out of the gathering darkness, 
sweet voices of the night, recalling memories of your 
glorious past, and whispering to you, one and all, the 
glad promise of peace, and rest beyond. 


31 


Response of Captain Israel P. Rumsey, First Illinois 
Light Artillery , Member of The Board of Trade of 
the City of Chicago since 1859. 

Mr. President, 

Comrades of ’ 62 ; 

Also Comrades of the Chicago Board of Trade. 
Gentlemen :— 

My mind and heart are so full of memories and 
emotions of fifty years ago—yes, I include fifty-one 
years ago—that it is hard for me to control myself or 
my voice. 

I thank our God that He has saved me to be able 
to greet so many tonight who honored this Board of 
Trade in their manly defense of these flags, which 
represent the honor of our Nation. 

While I am not one of you of “sixty-two,” I am 
one of those who went from this Board of Trade upon 
Governor Yates’ proclamation and call for 30,000 men 
in April, 1861. The orator of the evening has referred 
very flatteringly to myself and others (including my 
brother, John W.) from this Board of Trade who 
enlisted upon the President’s first call, those of the 
Chicago Light Artillery, who left this city upon the 
Sunday after Fort Sumter was fired upon by the 
enemies of the Union, and “Taylor’s Chicago Bat¬ 
tery,” organized in April and May and left June 4th, 
’61. The official titles of these two first Batteries were 
“A” and “B” 1st Illinois Light Artillery. 

It is true, they fought the memorable battles of 
Belmont, Mo., Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh 
under General U. S. Grant before you came to us in 
1862, but we deserve and ask no honors above you. 

We rejoice together in the success of helping to pre¬ 
serve the Union and it is very befitting that this great 
and influential association, upon the fiftieth anni- 


32 


versary, express in this manner its appreciation of 
your valiant deeds and the credit of the Board as you 
carried the name through so many severe battles and 
campaigns with honor. 

Of you, young men of the Board of Trade, we only 
ask that you duly appreciate what the united and 
peaceful nation you now enjoy cost your fathers and 
that you protect and preserve it by good government 
and hand it down to your children and children’s 
children as united as we leave it to you. 


33 


The Grand Army Button 


As described by the lamented late Secretary of the Chicago Board of Trade 
GEORGE F. STONE 

I have heard that our Lord’s prayer has been 
inscribed on a disc the size of a dime, but on that 
Button is recorded in ineffaceable and living characters 
the history of Grant and Sherman and Lincoln; of 
Sherman and Thomas and Logan and Custer and 
Meade; of Farragut and Porter; the history of the 
campaign of the Army of the Potomac, of the 
Cumberland and of the West; of the March to the 
Sea; of Shiloh; of Vicksburg; of Forts Henry and 
Donelson; of Atlanta; of Wilderness; of Winchester; 
of Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek; of sieges and battles 
and skirmish lines; of “days of danger and nights of 
waking”; of weary marches by day and by night, in 
cold and storm and heat; of parting lovers and maidens; 
of farewells of husbands and wives; of prayers and 
blessings from fireside and camp, ascending on high 
as a divine incense; of agony and death in prison and 
in hospital; of great captains and heroic soldiers; of 
valor on sea and on land; of the proclamation of 
Abraham Lincoln giving freedom to four millions of 
a persecuted race and wiping forever from the national 
escutcheon human slavery; of Gettysburg and Appo¬ 
mattox; of the downfall of a rebellion, wicked as hell 
itself; of a reunited country and of the perpetuity 
of the Union with its countless and unspeakable and 
eternal blessings—a priceless gift from the great 
dispenser of good things unto men. 


34 


This record shall never fade away; it shall grow 
brighter and brighter as the years go by, scattering 
sparks of inspiration among the generations as they 
come and go. 

And when time shall be no more—when all things 
transitory shall have passed away—when all the sounds 
of earth have been stilled, then the bells of Heaven 
shall ring in commemoration of American patriotism, 
and the undying fame of the American soldier. 

Geo. F. Stone. 


35 


The Franklin Company 

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